Leo IV the Khazar

Emperor Leo IV the Khazar was the emperor of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire from 775 to 780. He was an iconoclast following in the steps of his father, Constantine V, who was a committed iconoclast. His reign, a short five years, was was overshadowed by his wife Irene of Athens, a strong iconodule, who after Leo's death succeeded to power as regent for her son Constantine VI and as empress.

Life

Leo was born in January 750 to Constantine V's first wife, Irene the Khazar. He was crowned co-emperor by his father in 751. In December 769 he was married in the chapel of St Stephen in the Daphne Palace to Irene of Athens, a member of the Sarandapechys family. Their only son, Constantine, was born on January 14, 771. The choice of Irene as Leo's bride was to prove surprising, as Irene later displayed a reverence for icons.

Leo succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-five after the death of his father, Constantine, in August 775. He had his five-year-old son, Constantine VI, crowned as co-emperor on April 14, 776, a Pascha Sunday, after having the army, senate, and people swear that they would accept no other emperor than himself, his son, and their descendants. In spite of this action, conspiracies erupted among Leo's younger brothers. These Leo put down easily, although the conspiring brothers would later reappear in opposition to Irene's regime.

During the early part of his reign, Leo appeared to take a more moderate position than his father on suppression of veneration of icons and monasticism. When Patriarch Nicetas died in 780, Leo appointed as patriarch Paul of Cyprus, who may have had a more moderate iconoclastic position than his predecessors. But soon Leo appeared to renew the persecution of iconodules that his father had initiated in the 760s. When Leo found that his wife Irene had icons in her possession, he rebuked her, then turning her aside, no longer had marital relations with her. Many courtiers, iconophile sympathizers whom Irene may have brought to the palace, were arrested, imprisoned, and tortured, and some may have died. Relations between Leo and Irene before these renewed persecutions appeared to have been fine.

Besides military matters, little is known of Leo's civil activities as emperor. In this area he continued the his father's primarily defensive, yet successful, warfare in Asia Minor against Arab forces.

Leo died on September 8, 780 while on a campaign against the Bulgarians. His death was described, possibly by Irene's supporters, as having been the result of Leo's addiction to precious stones, many of which he wore in crown of the Great Church, which resulted in his being seized by a violent fever. His reign ended six days short of five years. Leo was buried with other members of the imperial family in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

The ascendancy of his wife Irene brought on the scene a strong personality. After Leo's death, she reversed the iconoclastic heresy that had appeared in the Byzantine imperial court. Irene's fortitude resulted in the convening of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which formally recognized the veneration of images in the Orthodox Church.